Best Man's Speech
The 7th chapter of Acts is quite long. 60 verses.
I hope you'll take the time to read all of it.
I have broken it into three pieces and posted it in the course of the message for this morning.
You'll recall from last week that Stephen has been taken by the Jewish religious leaders and brought before the Sanhedrin, the large group of Jewish rulers from every city in the land. They have accused Stephen of saying all kinds of horrid things against the Temple, against the Judaism, against Moses & God.
Now Stephen stands before the high priest.
It is eerily similar to another moment in which we are familiar.
Matthew 26:57
Jesus Before the Sanhedrin
57 Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled.
Just as in the instance of Jesus before the Sanhedrin, there are people who speak up in false pretenses. We noted last week, there were several who spoke up with things to say about how Stephen was doing his ministry. They make up sayings or twist what he has said just a bit. Didn't they do that to Jesus also?
Matthew 26:59-61
59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.
Finally two came forward 61 and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”
The parallelism between Jesus' & Stephen's encounters with the Sanhedrin and the high priest end there. Other than that they give their lives in defense of the Gospel message they have been presenting, the rest of the story is vaguely different. Jesus says little or nothing before his adversaries. Stephen, on the other hand, launches into an unforgettable sermon.
What we are going to do is look at Stephen's message piece by piece, chunk by chunk.
What we see Stephen doing is recounting Israel's history back to them while inserting the message of Jesus in the proper places and times. He hopes to help them see just how hard headed and hard hearted they have become. That can be dangerous. It's one thing to go head strong against someone you personally know. A loved one. A longtime friend. To walk into a room full of strangers and assume that we know their history or their feelings beforehand and then speak in this way... This I do not recommend. You better feel as if this is what God really wants you to do.
I would like to suggest that there are ways to prevent such persecution from happening.
Sometimes, I think we bring such harshness upon ourselves by not taking a gentler approach with those outside our faith. There are times where I read a news article of someone who was arrested or thrown out of a public place for their faith and I think, "Why exactly did that happen?" In our great country where freedom roles on and we do have the ability to meet and worship wherever we want there are times when maybe we take it too far. Instead of making it about God, we make it about ourselves, our faith, our church. We want what we want the way we want it. When we go shoving our faith and beliefs down someone else's throat, well, we're asking for trouble. And, according to Jesus, there enough trouble with simply being associated with the name of Jesus. We don't need to go heaping more trouble up our heads by making it all about what we want. Having said all that, Jesus mentions that the world will hate us because it first hated Him. That's enough hatred for all of us. Let that ride without making them hate us more because we are overbearing, forceful, faith pushers.
Stephen's persecution comes on the tail end of an already frightful event.
Jesus has been crucified. The sky went black as night. An earthquake shook the land. The veil in the Temple was torn in two. Even though the moment of Pentecost has given new life to a band of weary believers we should look at the land of Israel as a place that has come though a trial of apocalyptic measures. There is still tension. Its not like the religious leaders just forgot about this Jesus. No doubt, the name of "Jesus" is still a household name. In my own feelings, persecution can, in some cases, be avoided. Maybe that's why Jesus told several of the people he healed not to go about publicly telling everyone they knew. He was trying to prolong the event that he knew was on the horizon. After three and half years of putting up with the Messiah and his teachings, the religious crowd had enough. They don't give this new band of believers and apostles quite that long.
The confrontation begins with the high priest's words. "Are these charges true?"
Instead of answering "No" and then defending himself, Stephen launches into a sermon with these few fleeting moments he has left. Maybe he thinks that his life hangs in the balance anyway. They are looking for someone to kill, it seems. They want someone to make an example of, so why not Stephen? If you knew you have one chance to speak up and share the message of Jesus, would you do it?
Instead of defending himself, Stephen cuts right to the chase
Stephen jumps into a deep discourse on Moses? Why?
These religious leaders think of themselves as children of Abraham and followers of Moses.
What Stephen does is use Moses a messianic figure who led the people to freedom.
Why wouldn't they listen to this Jesus also who simply wanted to lead them to safety?
Lets read further.
Instead of defending himself, Stephen cuts right to the chase.
Stephen's retelling of Israel's history should put his hearers in the shoes of their patriarch.
Can you imagine being told to leave your home, your familiar surrounding and traveling to some far off place? What would that do to your faith? Would it strengthen it? Would it weaken it? Would it deflate it and make it unusable? All of Stephen's audience listens intently as he recalls the actions of this "man of faith".
Sometimes we are softened when we hear our family's history.
We recall hard times and bask in the wonderment of how they could have survived such hardships. How did we get to where we are today if our families had to go through all of that? Stephen's plea tugs at their heart strings as he tells them the story of their people's destitution.
From Abraham to Joseph to Moses. the Jewish historical spectrum goes through some of the most memorable figures. A man who was born and then placed in a basket, set adrift while his mother hopes for the best. he is raised in Egyptian hands and, no less, by the hands of his own mother, as God would see to it. Triumph turns to tragedy as he flees in his later years following a misunderstanding, taking the life of an Egyptian soldier in defense of one of his own people.
Now, it's getting good. God is front and center. The same God who sent Abraham on the journey. The same God who wrestled with Jacob. The same God who walked with Joseph through his trials and triumphs. The God of the burning bush. If I'm in a seat in the Sanhedrin, then I'm leaning forward a bit wondering where this Stephen is going with this. Stephen has his crowd's attention and begins to lay out the final edges in defense of the Gospel.
"...a prophet..." There were lots of prophets down through the centuries. But, there's only one prophet were are concerned about here. To the Christian, we should be able to see what direction Stephen is steering towards. To the unbelieving Jew, they might still be wondering where this message is headed.
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